Odile's figure rose from the ring on Twiggy's hand, still as ephemeral as ever — though compared to when Geno had last seen her, she looked far weaker now.
"Thank you, Miss Twiggy."
Odile bowed to Twiggy first, then slowly made her way toward the skull lying on the ground — the one that belonged to Odette, to her little sister.
"Odette. My sister."
Odile slowly bent down, trying to pick up the head, but her hands still passed through it, touching nothing.
"Still like this, huh…"
A flicker of dejection crossed Odile's eyes. She had fed the power within the ring back into Twiggy, letting her draw on that formidable strength — but in doing so, she'd also shaken the very foundation her own existence depended on.
Now, with her soul cut off from the Ether sustaining it inside the ring, she would soon fade away entirely.
Her last wish before dying had simply been to see her sister once more, to gently touch her head. Was even so small a wish too much to ask?
Just as Odile gave up all hope and resigned herself to fading away in despair, a faintly cool embrace wrapped around her.
"Sister… is that really you?"
Odile could hardly believe the sensation of being held. Even after all these years, she'd never forgotten the feel of her own sister's arms.
"Odette… it's me, Odile. I really — I really get to see you again. Thank goodness."
Crystal tears slid from the corners of Odile's eyes. Their long-awaited reunion left her overwhelmed, and no matter how hard she tried to hold herself together, her body trembled.
Held in her arms, Odette — with the same face, the same black hair — wasn't doing any better. She looked like she wanted to melt right into her sister's body, crying like a child.
"What a touching scene — if we ignore the part where the two of us were just chased half to death, that is."
Geno dabbed theatrically at the corner of his eye. He wanted to say something heartfelt too, but now really wasn't the time.
"Twiggy, I'll leave the two of them to you. I'm heading upstairs to find Nicole and the others."
"Go ahead. I don't have the strength left to tag along with you anyway."
Twiggy nodded at Geno, then watched him leave, heading back up toward the floors above.
As for her, she leaned weakly against the wall and slid slowly down until she was sitting on the floor.
Having wrapped up their tearful sisterly reunion, Odette and Odile drifted over shoulder to shoulder to stand before Twiggy, then bowed deeply to her.
"Thank you, Miss Twiggy. Thank you for giving us sisters a day to reunite.
Odile had been puzzled at first as to why Odette's soul had suddenly appeared, but the moment she saw the two rings on Twiggy's hand, everything clicked into place.
One ring was naturally Odile's own; the other belonged to Odette.
Odette's ring had always been kept inside her Ether core, ceaselessly converting high-intensity energy for her. Most of it couldn't be stored, but it still gave her power far beyond that of any other Ethereal.
Under normal circumstances, whichever sister lost the ring's power would die.
But now, not only was Odette fine — even Odile, who had already begun to fade, had stopped dissolving and remained intact as a soul. All of it was because Twiggy had fed her own Ether energy back into them.
"But Miss Twiggy, if you do that, your body—"
"I know. Losing that much Ether will weaken the body, but I can just about hold on."
Twiggy explained flatly.
In this world, Ether energy was closely tied to human survival — not just as a power source, but as something present inside every person's body.
Never mind that Twiggy was now an Ethereal reliant on Ether energy — even an ordinary person suddenly losing a large amount of internal Ether would suffer complications, dizziness and the like.
The only reason Twiggy was still sitting here instead of passing out was that she'd taken a couple of bites off the Ethereal banquet earlier, leaving her just enough strength to spare some energy for these two — er, these two ghosts.
"Honestly, I don't even know how to thank you enough, Miss Twiggy."
Seeing Twiggy like this, Odile nearly burst into tears again — good thing Twiggy stopped her in time.
"Stop crying. At least this counts as a happy ending for everyone now — besides, too much crying just gives me a headache."
As she spoke, Twiggy rubbed at her head for effect — though honestly, it did ache a little. She'd been through so much tonight, passing out more than once; it had been quite the ordeal.
At that, Odile swallowed back the tears that had been on the verge of spilling.
Beside her, Odette followed suit and pressed her lips into a firm line, the very picture of a little sister tagging along after her big sister.
"Still, thank you. Only… we may have no way to repay such a debt of gratitude…"
As the saying goes, great kindness needs no thanks — the handsome ones offer themselves in marriage, the ugly ones pledge to slave away for you in the next life.
Twiggy certainly wasn't ugly, but since she was a girl herself, offering herself in marriage wasn't really on the table — and even if she'd been willing, the two sisters weren't exactly in a position to make good on it.
Twiggy, however, saw things differently.
"Forget the next life. Let's settle it now — you two belong to me from this moment on."
Twiggy declared it with such domineering confidence that it cut Odile's awkward hesitation off cold.
Odile and Odette immediately exchanged looks of confusion, a giant question mark practically hovering over their heads.
Was Miss Twiggy actually—
No, that couldn't be right — she and Mister Geno were a couple, weren't they…
But then… could she be some kind of switch-hitter?
But the two of them were ghosts! Even if she wanted that, wouldn't she need the hardware for it? What good was having just the software!
Watching the two of them look utterly baffled, Twiggy instantly realized they'd gotten the wrong idea. Without bothering to explain, she simply held both hands up right in front of their faces.
"Get your minds out of the gutter. I mean, since you want to slave away for me, skip the next life — do it now. The two of you, get back into those rings!"
With that, Twiggy went on to explain her plan to them.
Since the rings had preserved both their souls for all these years, that proved they made excellent vessels for storing souls.
But now, with their Ether energy spent, the two of them were on the verge of vanishing.
So if Twiggy simply poured energy back into the rings, wouldn't that let them survive?
"But that would mean the two of us keep drawing on your Ether forever. We couldn't possibly—"
Odile's brow furrowed. The idea of surviving at the cost of harming Twiggy sat very badly with her.
It would make them no better than parasites.
"Hold it right there. I never said I'd save you two for free. Everything has a price — if you want to live, then come work for me!"
"Work?!"
____
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